The invention relates to containers with electrically driven locking mechanisms, and in particular to shipping containers. It is, however, applicable to all containers in the same manner, irrespective of size and shape, on the outer walls of which hollow bodies are provided for the accommodation of locking devices. The invention is explained hereinafter in greater detail by way of the example of a shipping container.
The transport of freight goods is effected nowadays worldwide preponderantly by the use of standardized containers. The containers are deposited at the loading location, loaded there, and then loaded onto a vehicle (road or rail vehicle), if appropriate conveyed to a harbor or airport, there loaded onto a ship or aircraft, and therefore interlocked and lashed together with other containers in order to provide secure transport, unlocked and released from lashings again at the place of arrival, and loaded onto a vehicle, brought to the destination location, and offloaded there. containers which is both safe and rapid, whereby the technology being applied must be capable of accommodating, transporting, or interlocking containers of different dimensions. Containers exhibit in their upper and lower corner areas in each case hollow bodies (referred to as “corner castings”), which are provided with oval openings on their sides which face outwards. Locking devices from depositing equipment (container spreaders) or overhead handling equipment can be introduced into these oval openings, whereby these locking devices exhibit end areas (twistlocks) of which the dimensions are smaller than the oval openings in the corner castings. As soon as the twistlocks have been introduced into the corner castings, they are mechanically rotated, so that the container is locked to the container spreader or the overhead handling equipment and can be transported. When raising, the upper side of the twistlock comes into contact with the underside of the cover wall of the hollow body.
Container spreaders are known which can simultaneously accommodate and move two 20′ containers standing one behind the other (there are standardized 20′ containers, 40′ containers, and 45′ containers).
The advantage of such container spreaders is limited, however, since on the one hand only the small containers (20 feet) can be accommodated, while on the other hand two such containers must stand one behind the other and the possibility of use only pertains in situations in which there is sufficient deposition space. The situation becomes particularly problematic if several containers stacked on top of one another must be interlocked, such as is necessary in particular with ships' loads or in container terminals. In this case, interlocking takes place manually, in that two containers arranged on top of one another or next to one another are locked to one another by means of connection and locking elements (locking grips or bars). This is time-consuming and, because of the risk of injury when applying the connecting and locking elements, also dangerous.
The object of the present invention is to provide a container which is equipped in such a way that it can be interlocked with other containers of the same type without manual intervention, and several containers stacked on top of one another can be transported simultaneously.